News

  • Fears grow over EM sovereign bond bubble

    Even investment bankers orchestrating these bond sales are becoming concerned the market is overly frothy as cash-rich fund managers seek out yield - May 23, 09:18am

  • Glass half empty at Heineken

    Has the brewer been slow in lessening its dependence on stale old western Europe, and in seizing opportunities presented by effervescent new markets? - May 23, 02:05pm

  • Nikkei plunge triggers investor retreat

    Concerns the Fed will reduce its asset purchasing programme and fresh fears about strength of China’s economy lead to broad-based sell-off - May 23, 12:42pm

  • Singapore’s first ‘dark pool’ launched

    Sign of growing interest in the off-exchange facilities, which has sometimes been controversial as they have sucked trading away from exchanges - May 23, 11:22am

  • China data add urgency to stimulus calls

    Factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months, raising concerns of sluggish growth and adding to pressure on Beijing to act - May 23, 10:01am

  • Asian debt: Beware of bubbles

    Southeast Asia’s booming bond market has sparked fears of a bubble but the region is in more robust shape to withstand shocks than in the late 1990s - May 22, 06:57pm

  • Dollar rally saps Asian currency strength

    Traditional view of Asia’s currencies as play on risk gives way to a more nuanced approach as rates are cut and tapering of Federal Reserve asset-buying looms - May 22, 06:35pm

  • Hard to build an ‘anyone but China’ club

    No one will say it, but the unstated aim of the TPP is to create a ‘high level’ trade agreement excluding the world’s second-largest economy - May 22, 06:24pm

  • Labour unrest threatens UAE construction

    As the country embarks on a renewed development drive, the Arabtec strike is reminder of pitfalls last seen during the boom years - May 22, 06:11pm

  • SocGen to fire chief of Russian lender

    French bank hires Deloitte to investigate after Vladimir Golubkov, head of its subsidiary Rosbank, was placed under house arrest on bribery charges - May 22, 06:09pm

  • N Korean envoy visits China amid tensions

    A senior aide to Kim Jong-eun has arrived in Beijing at a time when Pyongyang’s nuclear activities and belligerent rhetoric have stirred concerns - May 22, 04:57pm

  • Ai Weiwei mocks state in music video

    Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist, has dedicated to dissidents everywhere a heavy-metal video he has made that satirises the power of state authorities - May 22, 04:45pm

  • Bangladesh and the clothes on our backs

    In the month that has passed since the collapse in Dhaka, resolve to prevent a repetition has all but evaporated, writes Michael Skapinker - May 22, 03:08pm

  • Seoul warned over trade agreements

    Foreign groups blame South Korea’s tough regulations on offshore data transfers for hindering their efficiency and profitability - May 22, 02:29pm

  • Chinese broker Galaxy enjoys strong debut

    Shares in the $1.1bn initial public offering rose as much as 11 per cent when trading began in Hong Kong on Wednesday before falling back later - May 22, 12:34pm

  • Sluggish economy demands reform

    Recession remains at bay though the eurozone crisis is taking its toll, says Jan Cienski - May 22, 06:55am

  • Brazil: Rising demand for mobiles adds to strain on networks

    Smartphone use may present challenge for machine-to-machine market, writes Samantha Pearson - May 22, 12:21am

  • Rafsanjani banned from presidential poll

    Guardian Council, which vets potential presidential candidates for loyalty to Supreme Leader, also bans an ally of president from participating - May 21, 08:02pm

  • Shane Todd’s family walk out of inquest

    An inquiry into the death of an American engineer in Singapore took an unexpected turn after his family walked out of a coroner’s inquest - May 21, 06:36pm

  • China demand lifts Burberry sales to £2bn

    British luxury goods group is targeting more growth in emerging markets such as China and Latin America as it shifts focus away from wholesale - May 21, 06:03pm

  • China’s banks face no-win situation

    Earnings are already starting to slow at local banks. Given the downgrading of Chinese prospects, there may be worse to come. says Henny Sender - May 21, 05:29pm

  • Chiefs talk up India-China trade target

    While some notable agreements have boosted ties, in other ways the story of the corporate links spanning the two Asian powerhouses is less happy - May 21, 02:42pm

  • India IT groups struggle to woo China

    Attempts to win outsourcing deals have proven tough because costs in China are more or less on a par with India for IT services - May 21, 02:19pm

  • China pledges boost to India trade

    Li Keqiang promises to open his country’s markets to Indian goods to help narrow India’s gaping bilateral trade deficit and boost mutual commerce - May 21, 10:33am

  • Guatemala court overturns genocide ruling

    The ruling forcing proceedings to backtrack throws into disarray the trial that had issued a historic guilty verdict against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt - May 21, 09:48am

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Filter by specific countries or regions

Nigerian banks have a way of finding their own solutions, be it fixing a crisis or getting first-time borrowers and savers into the system.

Or listing in London, for that matter. Three Nigerian banks have listed global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange. Zenith Bank is the latest, and is the second to do so among the country’s five Tier-1 banks. The move is one born of new confidence, and a search for new investors. Continue reading »

When Barack Obama and Xi Jinping meet at the Annenberg Estate two weeks from now, the focus will be on how the American and Chinese presidents (pictured during a meeting in February 2012) can build a personal relationship able to bridge the many differences between the world’s two largest economies.

That may be a challenge. Politicians in both nations often struggle to hide their mutual dislike. Just now, Chinese netizens are working themselves up over Joe Biden’s dissing of their country in a recent speech. Continue reading »

* Nikkei plunge triggers investor retreat

* China data add urgency to stimulus calls

* Emerging stocks head for biggest drop in 10 months Continue reading »

A recent conference held by the China Medical Board, a US foundation, on China and the Global Burden of Disease identified smoking as the third greatest risk to health in the country, behind dietary risks and high blood pressure but ahead of China’s deadly environmental pollution about which so much has been written.

Asia is one of the last great global bastions of smoking, with China and Indonesia – the first and fourth most populous countries in the world – setting the regional lead. China alone is home to more than a third of the world’s smokers, puffing away at a rate of more than 2tn cigarettes a year. Continue reading »

Thursday’s picks from beyondbrics: bond markets are booming again in southeast Asia, but it’s not back to the 90s yet; revamping GDP stats could push Nigeria towards being Africa’s largest economy; US plans for an ‘anyone but China’ club face obstacles; plus, Mongolia’s resource curse. Continue reading »

Samsung Electronics is on a roll thanks to the huge popularity of its latest smartphone. The Galaxy S4 has sold 10m units within a month of its release, making it Samsung’s fastest-selling smartphone ever – the Galaxy S4 reached the 10m mark in half the time taken by its predecessor. Continue reading »

Investing in Zimbabwe is not for the faint-hearted. But its stock exchange has been booming of late. To maintain the momentum, management at the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is planning to sell shares in the organisation this year to raise funds for modernisation.

Tafadzwa Chinamo, chief executive of the Zimbabwean Securities Exchange Commission said in an interview with Bloomberg that an initial public offering would take place before the end of the year, with a likely valuation of around $15-20m. Continue reading »

* Dollar rally saps Asian currency strength
* Chinese broker Galaxy enjoys strong debut
* Nigeria statistics chief has almost figured out the economy Continue reading »

It shouldn’t have come as a shock. Several indicators had warned about it.

But for Mexico’s fans, the country’s disappointing first quarter GDP figures must still have been a hard pill to swallow. The economy expanded just 0.8 per cent in the first three months of this year, well below the 3.2 per cent growth it saw in the previous quarter and below the 1.2 per cent increase the market was expecting.

It was, in a nutshell, the weakest performance since Q4 of 2009. Continue reading »

Picasso famously had his blue period. Argentina has its blue dollar – as the black market exchange rate is known. And that’s good news for art collectors and visitors to the ArteBA art fair which kicks off this week.

Managing Argentina’s de facto multiple exchange rates is itself a fine art. But now art itself, among other things, has suddenly become cheap – provided people don’t use the official rate. Continue reading »

Ecuador, the smallest of the OPEC members, is working hard to diversify away from a dependence on oil exports.

So now the country’s leftwing president, Rafael Correa, is pushing for a new law to fast track mining contracts and investments in the Andean country. Continue reading »

Turkey is preparing to sign more contracts with US and Russian companies to prospect for and develop oil and gas reserves in the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq, Turkish officials said on Wednesday.

Officials gave no names of any companies involved or nor details of what sort of agreements may be signed beyond saying they would be “commercial” agreements. Continue reading »

During school holidays children in India are traditionally looked after close to home and at minimal cost. It’s one advantage of living in an extended family with a never-ending supply of aunties, eager to spend a day pinching the cheeks of your children and keeping them well fed.

But as the country develops, that seems to be changing. Parents are increasingly keen to get their children out of the house and into productive activities. India’s summer camp industry is expected to be worth Rs10bn ($179.9m) by the 2017-2018 year, up from Rs4bn today, according to Assocham, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. Continue reading »

The troubled Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange looks unlikely to be back in business any time soon. With regulators and the Hong Kong police opening separate investigations – followed quickly by three arrests on Tuesday night – the fledgling futures exchange may have done itself irreparable damage. Hong Kong’s financial sector will be very keen indeed to ensure the damage is restricted to HKMEx itself. Continue reading »

Ghana’s central bank sprung a surprise on Wednesday by raising its policy rate from 15 per cent to 16 per cent, stepping up its efforts to halt the decline of the cedi.

Central Bank Governor Henry Kofi Wampah noted risks to economic growth arising in part from tightened credit, but decided the weakening of the currency was the bigger threat. Continue reading »

BB: time to register

Dear beyondbrics readers,

After more than three years of fully open access, we are taking the step of asking our readers to register on FT.com to read our articles. Beyondbrics will still be free but we'd like to know a bit more about you, our readers. Other FT blogs (including Alphaville) already do the same thing. Registration is active on beyondbrics from May 6.

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Stefan Wagstyl, emerging markets editor

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beyondbrics

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